| Thai junta tries to curb dissent and keep good terms with US Posted: 30 Jan 2015 04:23 PM PST  BANGKOK (AP) — When Thailand's military junta sensed it was being criticized this week, the country's rulers reacted as they always do: by issuing stern warnings and summoning those responsible for talks army leaders like to refer to as "attitude adjustments."
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| Michelle Obama defends 'American Sniper' Posted: 30 Jan 2015 04:00 PM PST  US First Lady Michelle Obama on Friday defended Clint Eastwood's hit film "American Sniper," which has been accused of whitewashing the story of the Iraq war. Critics on the left have slammed the record-breaking film and say the subject of the movie, former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, deserves no hero treatment for his handiwork as a deadly sniper.
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| IS hostage drama shows change in propaganda technique Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:39 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — The latest Islamic State hostage drama involving a veteran Japanese war correspondent and a young Jordanian pilot marks the first time the group has publicly demanded prisoner releases. It also signals a change in the extremist group's propaganda technique.
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| US says Islamic State militant killed in Iraq Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:17 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials say a mid-level Islamic State militant who specialized in chemical weapons was killed in an U.S. airstrike near Mosul in Iraq last week. |
| Air strike kills IS 'chemical weapons expert': US Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:11 PM PST  A US-led coalition air strike killed a chemical weapons specialist with the Islamic State group in Iraq who once worked for Saddam Hussein, US military officers said Friday. The air raid carried out last Saturday near Mosul took out Abu Malik, whose training "provided the terrorist group with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability," the military said in a statement. Malik had worked at a chemical weapons production plant under Saddam's regime and later forged an affiliation with Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, before joining the extremist IS group, according to Central Command. "His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL's ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people," it said.
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| Stocks sag at the close; January finishes on weak note Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:07 PM PST  The U.S. stock market capped a rough month Friday, delivering its third loss in five days and extending its declines for the year.
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| Aquino vows justice for dead Filipino commandos on day of mourning Posted: 30 Jan 2015 02:30 PM PST  Philippine President Benigno Aquino pledged justice for the families of 44 police commandos killed by Muslim rebels during a botched anti-terror operation, as he led tributes on Friday -- a national day of mourning. The men were killed in confrontations with two rebel groups in the southern Philippines on Sunday while on a mission to catch or kill Malaysian bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, who is accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia in which 202 people died.
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| Islamic State chemical weapons expert killed in airstrike in Iraq: U.S. Posted: 30 Jan 2015 02:28 PM PST An Islamic State chemical weapons expert was killed in a coalition airstrike last week near Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Friday. Abu Malik, who was killed Jan. 24, had been a chemical weapons engineer during the rule of Saddam Hussein and then affiliated himself with al Qaeda Iraq in 2005, Central Command said. When he joined Islamic State, also known as ISIL, it gave the insurgent force a chemical weapons capability, the statement said. |
| Islamic State attacks Kurdish outposts across Iraq Posted: 30 Jan 2015 02:20 PM PST  By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants struck at Kurdish forces southwest of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday, while bombs in Kirkuk, Baghdad, Samarra and Ramadi killed at least 27 people. The Sunni Islamists have often battled Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite militias further south and west, but attacks in and around Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk have been less frequent. Kurdish military sources said the peshmerga had repelled dawn attacks by Islamic State at different points along a more than 1,000 km frontline, including Khazer, west of Arbil, and Makhmur, further south. "Maybe they are afraid the fight for Mosul has started so they are trying to show they can operate close to Arbil or Kirkuk," Roj Nuri Shaways, Iraq's deputy prime minister and a peshmerga commander, told Reuters.
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| Prospective juror has sympathy for Tsarnaev, cites young age Posted: 30 Jan 2015 01:39 PM PST  BOSTON (AP) — Many of the more than 100 prospective jurors questioned in the federal death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have said they can't be impartial because they already believe he's guilty or have a personal connection to the attack that would make it difficult to be objective.
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| White House grapples with fraught terrorism language Posted: 30 Jan 2015 01:36 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Twice this month, the White House has publicly grappled with the politically fraught language of terrorism.
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| Canada security bill provides new powers to combat terror Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:46 PM PST  By Andrea Hopkins RICHMOND HILL, Ontario (Reuters) - New anti-terror legislation in Canada would make it a crime to call for attacks on the country and give a much larger role to the government's main spy agency. The bill introduced by the Conservative government on Friday would give the spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the ability to disrupt attacks by interfering with travel plans or communications, for example. The bill, whose passage is assured because the Conservatives have a majority in Parliament, would also make it easier for police to make preventive arrests. "Jihadi terrorism as it is evolving is one of the most dangerous enemies our world has ever faced," Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who faces a general election in October, said at a news conference.
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| How hostage pilot drama is feeding an antiwar movement in Jordan Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:23 PM PST The ongoing drama of a Jordanian pilot held hostage by the Islamic State has escalated into a political crisis for King Abdullah II, threatening the position of a stalwart US ally and leading player in the coalition against the jihadist group. Jordanians have been gripped by the detention of Lt. Muath Kassasbeh, whose fighter jet crashed near Raqqa, Syria on Dec. 24. Rather than blame IS for the protracted hostage crisis, the public at large and members of the pilot's family have turned on the government. Rallies in solidarity with Kassasbeh have quickly turned into anti-coalition protests, with participants denouncing the US and its allies as "cowards" who are "using Jordanian blood" to fuel their war against the Islamic State. |
| Kurd allies fighting IS in north Iraq hampered by rivalries Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:19 PM PST  SINJAR, Iraq (AP) — Kurdish forces in recent weeks have retaken parts of the strategic Iraqi town of Sinjar, whose Yazidi population was driven out in a humanitarian disaster last year that triggered U.S. intervention. But sniping among Kurdish factions makes the hold on the town seem shaky and is threatening the wider fight against Islamic state militants.
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| Jordan awaits proof hostage is alive after swap deadline Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:15 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — The fates of a Japanese journalist and Jordanian military pilot were unknown Friday, a day after the latest purported deadline for a possible prisoner swap passed with no further word from the Islamic State group holding them captive.
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| 5 may face preliminary charges over jihadi network in France Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:09 PM PST PARIS (AP) — Five people have appeared before a French judge and could face preliminary charges over a jihadi recruiting network in a small southern town from where several youths went to fight in Syria and Iraq. |
| Egypt blames Muslim Brotherhood for deadly Sinai attack Posted: 30 Jan 2015 11:50 AM PST  EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for playing a role in a sophisticated insurgent attack that killed 31 people in Egypt's volatile northern Sinai Peninsula. El-Sissi, a former army chief, cut short a trip to Ethiopia to return to Cairo Friday, as state television broadcast the arrival of the bodies of slain soldiers in coffins draped with Egyptian flags.
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| Why is more data on Afghanistan war being classified, former US commanders ask Posted: 30 Jan 2015 11:27 AM PST Now former military commanders are speaking out against the move. "I find it ridiculous," says retired Col. Peter Mansoor, former executive officer to retired Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. Though the US command in Afghanistan has cited security reasons, "I'm hard pressed to think of a legitimate reason to classify it at this stage of the game," says retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of US forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. The move came to light Thursday in a report from the war's chief government watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). |
| French fracture laid bare as 8-year-old praises terrorists Posted: 30 Jan 2015 10:30 AM PST  PARIS (AP) — It was bad enough when France learned that the minute of silence for victims of the nation's deadliest terror attacks in decades was not respected by all students. Some children contested it, others walked out. But when an 8-year old Muslim boy proclaimed, "I am with the terrorists," the alarm bells sounded at full strength.
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| Mitt: I Would Win, But I’m Not Running Posted: 30 Jan 2015 10:30 AM PST  In a conference call with supporters, Mitt Romney on Friday generously removed himself from consideration for the Republican presidential nomination to make room for … well, he didn't really say. In a strikingly odd statement, Romney essentially dismissed the current crop of contenders, which includes former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, saying he's convinced he would beat them all if he ran. He's also convinced, he said, that he would beat the Democratic Party nominee, whoever that may be.
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| Air strikes alone not enough to defeat Islamic State: NATO chief Posted: 30 Jan 2015 09:31 AM PST  Air strikes alone will not be enough to defeat Islamic State militants and greater Western help in building up Iraqi security forces could also play a role, the head of NATO said on Friday. The United States leads a coalition of countries that has been carrying out air strikes against the Islamist militants who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq. NATO as an organization is not involved but individual allies participate in the coalition. "I welcome that (participation) and I think that is important, even though I don't believe that air strikes alone can solve the problem," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.
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| EU antiterror chief calls for common laws against jihadis Posted: 30 Jan 2015 09:08 AM PST RIGA, Latvia (AP) — The European Union's counterterrorism chief says member states need to have common laws against Europeans traveling to Syria and Iraq to join jihadist groups. |
| Two US citizens under fire in new anti-West attack in Saudi Posted: 30 Jan 2015 08:23 AM PST  Gunmen fired at two US citizens Friday on a road in oil-rich Eastern Province, leaving one wounded, in the fourth anti-Western attack in Saudi Arabia in as many months, police said. The two Americans were travelling on a road in Shiite-populated Al-Ihsaa governorate of eastern Saudi Arabia, he said. A resident of Al-Ihsaa told AFP that police blocked off a part of the city where a National Guard facility and a Saudi Aramco hospital and training school are located. Last month, Saudi authorities arrested three IS supporters for allegedly shooting and wounding a Dane in his car in Riyadh.
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| Top officer killed as Iraq Kurds repel major IS attack Posted: 30 Jan 2015 08:06 AM PST  Iraqi Kurdish forces repelled a major attack by the Islamic State group in Kirkuk province that killed a top officer Friday, while violence elsewhere left at least 19 dead. The IS assault on areas south and west of the northern city of Kirkuk began at around midnight, sparking fighting with medium and heavy weapons in which the militants were ultimately held off. Damage to Kirkuk oil facilities would pose a serious problem for Iraq, which is counting on crude exports of 300,000 barrels per day from the oil-rich province in its 2015 budget. Brigadier General Shirko Rauf and five other members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded in the fighting, a police brigadier general and a doctor said, but the final casualty figure for Kurdish troops was unclear.
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| Egypt's Sisi cuts short Ethiopia visit after 32 killed in Sinai Posted: 30 Jan 2015 07:50 AM PST  By Maggie Fick and Yusri Mohamed CAIRO/ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cut short a visit to Ethiopia for an African Union summit on Friday after Islamic State's Egyptian wing claimed the killing of at least 30 soldiers and police officers in the Sinai Peninsula. The four separate attacks on security forces in North Sinai on Thursday night were among the bloodiest in years and the first significant assault in the region since the most active Sinai militant group swore allegiance to IS in November. Militant attacks in Sinai, while far from Cairo and tourist attractions, has crimped government efforts to project an image of stability to woo back foreign investors and tourists driven away by frequent political violence since a popular uprising four years ago that overthrew veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Sisi left Addis Ababa after meeting with the Ethiopian premier following the AU summit's opening session, an Egyptian official there told Reuters.
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| Battle with IS kills senior Kurdish general, 8 of his troops Posted: 30 Jan 2015 07:35 AM PST  KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Clashes with Islamic State militants killed a senior Kurdish military commander and eight of his fighters just outside the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday, officials said.
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| At least 6 migrants drown off Morocco coast: authorities Posted: 30 Jan 2015 07:07 AM PST  At least six would-be migrants drowned when their boat capsized near Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, authorities said Friday. Another 10 people were rescued from the water after the boat overturned off the Moroccan town of Nador, five kilometres (three miles) from Melilla. The flow of migrants hoping to reach Europe via Melilla and its sister enclave, Ceuta, swelled last year due to conflicts in Syria and Iraq as well as unrest in parts of north Africa, officials say. In December, more than 100 migrants scaled a perimeter fence to enter Melilla.
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| New Saudi king in major government shake-up Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:43 AM PST  Saudi Arabia's new King Salman has tightened his hold on power, firing two sons of his predecessor and replacing the heads of intelligence and other key agencies in a sweeping shakeup. The appointments, which analysts said supported signs the kingdom will chart a steady course on foreign and oil policy, came a week after Salman, 79, took the throne following the death of King Abdullah. Top officials from the Ports Authority, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police were among those let go late Thursday. One of his more than 30 decrees ordered "two months' basic salary to all Saudi government civil and military employees," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
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| U.S. man shot and wounded in eastern Saudi Arabia: state media Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:36 AM PST A U.S. citizen was shot and wounded in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, state news agency SPA reported, adding to security concerns in the world's top oil exporting nation. A vehicle carrying two U.S. citizens came under fire in the Eastern Province district of al-Ahsa, one of the main centers of Saudi Arabia's minority Shi'ites, SPA said, citing a police statement. Saudi officials are concerned about the spread of sectarian strife from the conflicts in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia has arrested the four main suspects and said it believes it was ordered by Islamic State militants from abroad Qatif, another center of the Saudi Shi'ite minority alongside Al-Ahsa, has been a focus of anti-government demonstrations in support of Shi'ites who complain of discrimination. |
| OPEC oil output rises in January as key members stand firm: survey Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:21 AM PST  OPEC's oil supply has risen this month due to more Angolan exports and steady to higher output in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers, a Reuters survey showed, a sign key members are standing firm in refusing to prop up prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at a November meeting decided to focus on market share rather than cutting output, despite concerns from members such as Iran and Venezuela about falling oil revenue. Supply from OPEC has averaged 30.37 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, up from a revised 30.24 million bpd in December, according to the survey based on shipping data and information from sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants. At the Nov. 27 meeting, OPEC retained its output target of 30 million bpd, sending oil prices to a four-year low close to $71 a barrel.
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| High-five Mabkhout reveals German club approach Posted: 30 Jan 2015 05:53 AM PST  United Arab Emirates sharpshooter Ali Mabkhout on Friday said he would ask his club about a move to Europe after he finished the Asian Cup with a tournament-leading five goals. The prolific striker stroked home a nerveless penalty in the second half to seal a 3-2 win over Iraq and third place at the tournament for the attractive UAE side. Mabkhout, who plays for Al Jazira in Abu Dhabi, said he now wanted to make the leap to Europe and revealed that a club from Germany's Bundesliga had made tentative enquiries. "I want to play for a club in Europe," the 24-year-old said after Friday's win in Newcastle.
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| Dead-eye Mabkhout fires UAE to third at Asian Cup Posted: 30 Jan 2015 05:33 AM PST Ali Mabkhout put one hand on the Asian Cup top-scorer award on Friday as the United Arab Emirates came from behind to beat 10-man Iraq 3-2 in a rollercoaster third-place playoff. The Al Jazira marksman took his tally for the competition to five with a nerveless second-half penalty in Newcastle, putting him a goal ahead of partner Ahmed Khalil, who grabbed a brace. "Before the match Ali was top scorer and I said if we get a penalty he would take it -- but by then Ahmed had scored two and also had the chance for the golden boot," UAE coach Mahdi Ali told reporters. Khalil opened the scoring on 16 minutes, sliding the ball past goalkeeper Mohammed Hameed to complete a blistering counter-attack sparked by midfield wizard Omar Abdulrahman. |
| U.S. leads six more air strikes against Islamic State: statement Posted: 30 Jan 2015 04:57 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition launched six air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq since early Thursday, according to the Combined Joint Task Force leading the military operation. The strikes hit in the Syrian border town of Kobani as well as al Asad and Tal Afar in Iraq, the task force said in a statement on Friday. They struck several fighting positions, and destroyed a building used by the militant group as well as a bunker, among other targets, the statement said. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom, Editing by Franklin Paul) |
| Asian Cup: UAE edges 10-man Iraq to win 3rd-place playoff Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:34 AM PST  NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Striker and captain Ahmed Khalil scored goals on either side of halftime and tournament scoring leader Ali Mabkhout converted a second-half penalty as the United Arab Emirates clinched third place in the Asian Cup with a 3-2 win over a 10-man Iraq.
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| Kurdish PM says U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State faces long war Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:28 AM PST  By Samia Nakhoul, Ned Parker and Isabel Coles ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned that despite victories in the war against Islamic State, the global coalition against the group was inadequate and predicted a campaign to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul would not happen before the fall. In an interview with Reuters late on Thursday, Barzani said there was little chance of defeating the Jihadi movement so long as the civil war rages on in Syria, Iraq's army continues to exist more on paper than on the ground, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq remain woefully under-armed. Current U.S. strategy, says the prime minister of the self-ruling Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), will at best contain IS, a resilient and carefully structured organisation that will menace the region and the world for years to come. The jihadi movement, which last year declared a cross-border caliphate after seizing tracts of territory in eastern Syria and west and northern Iraq, directly threatens the Iraqi Kurdish entity across front lines just 45 km (30 miles) from Erbil, the bustling capital of the KRG.
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| Egypt's Sisi cuts short Ethiopia visit after deadly Sinai attacks Posted: 30 Jan 2015 01:25 AM PST (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cut short a visit to Ethiopia for an African Union summit on Friday, following a wave of deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula claimed by Islamic State's Egyptian wing. Sisi's office said in a statement that Sisi, who was scheduled to address the summit, would head back to Cairo after the opening session on Friday morning. At least 26 security personnel were killed late on Thursday in four separate attacks in North Sinai, in some of the worst anti-government violence in months. |
| Australia's attack faces miserly South Korea for Asian Cup Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:49 AM PST  SYDNEY (AP) — The Asian Cup final between Australia and South Korea presents the familiar conundrum of the irresistible force meeting the immoveable object.
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